Borderlands - Escaping To Nostalgia
by Kyle Stoppard
Summary: When Lilith is caught stealing Eridium from a Psycho camp, she must escape with her life. Along the way Lilith ends up in an old town she is very familiar with. This is my second Fan Fiction, thanks to everyone who read the first and left feedback! And thanks in advance to anyone who may read this one too. As always any feedback and tips for the future are appreciated! - Kyle


As the horde of shotgun wielding Psycho's sprinted towards Lilith uncontrollably, their shots flying aimlessly, Lilith had become so close to absolute depletion. The explanation for this feeling of depletion was that thirty minutes earlier, Lilith had been spotted sneaking around a particularly large psycho camp, hunting for Eridium to fuel her abilities as a Siren. Whilst searching through her twelfth chest of the day, a blood stained, metre tall grenade wielding psycho that was covered in blood from head to toe foolishly charged towards Lilith with no thought process before hand. Screaming excitedly at the top of his lungs to scare his prey, and also giving himself away completely, he pulled the pin on the frag grenade that was clutched in his sweaty right hand, and proceeded to charge at the now fully aware Siren, who let out a cheeky grin to herself before spinning around to face the psycho who was 4 seconds from death and threw her hands towards him, phase locking him, rendering him frozen in mid air, unable to do anything. The grenade flew down the hill from the camp entrance, and rolled off a nearby cliff, ending about 4 Skaggs simultaneously. Lilith drew her high in flesh damage Jacobs pistol and aimed directly at the side of the suicide grenadier's head, however pointed her ears in the direction of the shouting she could now hear nearby. It only grew louder and became more familiar by the second. The sound of kill hungry psycho's readying for battle filled her head before it was diluted with the sound of unhinging doors. Now the Siren squinted to the other end of the camp only to witness around a dozen men covering their faces with hideous white masks and dirty orange trousers covering their battle scarred legs, with axes in each of their hands. In front of these blood thirsty maniacs were what appeared to be ten shotgun wielding midgets with ear bursting high pitched voices. This wasn't the end of Lilith's growing list of enemies to eradicate. As a raging Goliath smashed to the front of the cue to see what the commotion was all about. He bellowed,

" Time to get some loot boys!" Before realising the phase locked Psycho still remained airborne. "Well well... Looks like we got ourselves a Siren, how exciting... ATTACK!"

The leading Goliath began to spray bullets from the guns that he wielded in either hand into the air, as the Shotgun Midgets led the attack and the axe wielding Psycho's followed. A screen of dust was kicked behind the horde as the chase began and the majority of the camp became invisible. Lilith felt her hands tremble slightly, and this was the sign that her phase locking ability had recharged. A whisper spilt from the tattooed woman's mouth and travelled with her phase lock as it belted towards the Goliath and his minions.

"Sup." The Goliath was hoisted into the air and became a threat no more. A great advantage for Lilith however the rest of the Psycho's grew ever closer. Lilith once again armed herself with her Jacobs Pistol and fired six times into the oncoming crowd, knocking four of her enemies dead, and two injured, they were unable to continue. As she proceeded to continue firing, the sound no Vault Hunter likes to hear rang through her ears... Click, click.

" Damn it. Why can't it just be super easy every time?" Remarked the Siren sarcastically. She holstered her gun and turned away from the crowd who were firing shells continuously at her. The shells were at too long of a range and just scattered away from Lilith whilst travelling towards her. The psycho's needed to pace themselves, and get closer to the thief who snuck into their camp if they were to kill her with a Shotgun.

As the chase continued, the contestants found themselves sprinting out of the entrance to the Psycho camp where this whole ordeal began and down a rocky hill for about 30 seconds, before getting onto flat desert ground. Lilith remained at the front of the pack and the Shotgun Midgets remained behind, although gaining on Lilith slightly. The Axe Wielders remained on the cliff as this gave them a height advantage over Lilith. They set the sack of axes down, tore it open and the seven remaining Siren hunters began hurling axes as violently as possible. Axes ripped past Lilith's face at the same time Lilith's hand let off that signalling tremble once again. She spun around and zeroed her eyes in on the axe hurlers who stayed at a distance, furthermore once again throwing her phase locking hands towards them, and paralyzed two of them this time, in one attempt.

"Ahh not good!" Lilith gasped as her she hurled her cherry red hair to face the ground, as she held her stomach in agony for a few seconds before forcing herself to continue. She was in need of more Eridium and she needed it soon, or her powers would be basically useless against the reaming group of enemies and she would not be able to go on. After a Siren uses Eridium to boost their powers, they need more of it to increase their energy. The only alternative is to rest for at least 10 hours until energy levels naturally increase to default once again. This was not an option as everyone on Pandora knew the horrific tales of what fate people met when they were captured by Psycho's. So that was the reason Lilith was stealing from that camp. The Eridium increases a Sirens powers and restores their energy levels. Nobody yet knew why this was. Lilith only knew that ever since she opened that first vault years ago on her first adventure, Eridium was discovered. It spilled upon the land and ever since, it has had a very handy effect on a Sirens powers. And at this moment in time, Lilith didn't have time to ask questions about it, all she had time for was running towards a small town in the near distance which she had spotted, that other than a small gateway in the centre, was surrounded by steel fencing, and seemed pretty much abandoned.

**Chapter II**

As the horde of shotgun wielding Psycho's sprinted towards Lilith uncontrollably , their shots flying aimlessly, Lilith had become so close to absolute depletion. She would not be able to go on much longer and she knew this. The Axe Throwing Psycho's were long gone. They took their chances at killing Lilith from a distance and they failed. They would not catch up now. Unfortunately not the same could be said for the Shotgun wielding Midgets. They were closer than ever and were still firing their shells relentlessly. If Lilith wasn't careful she could have the back of her head caved in at any moment, by the death dealing Tediore weaponry that the psycho's were armed with.

" Ughhh I should have gone with Brick and Mordecai to Moxxi's." joked Lilith as she quickly snapped back to reality and realised she had to do something, or else she would be killed. After taking a detailed look through the dusty storm that riddled the lands, Lilith saw she was so close to the entrance to the town ahead, in addition so were the Midgets. Their battle cries, or as many called it, chants of insanity echoed closer than ever...

" Get the kill, get the loot. Get the kill, get the loot." This was being repeated over and over and was drilling through Lilith's Siren skull. She couldn't take it any longer, and to lower the volume of the chants, Lilith shot another victim into the air, rendering yet another Shotgun Midget useless. A couple of others stumbled due to this sudden act of magic, which very fortunately bought Lilith some precious time, as she could barely go on now. Short of breath. Sweat dripping down her tired face, and tattooed chest. Lilith turned again after phase locking for the final time that day, and stumbled underneath the gateway that hung above the town that she was oh so familiar with. She just didn't realise it straight away.

The town Lilith had entered was a town that in the past was predominantly used to house Dahl's mining force on Pandora, however over the years, the number of bandits in the area rose, and everybody was either driven out the town, or killed. Leaving only one man living there, a doctor. And a robot. However, that also changed since the rise of Handsome Jack. The doctor and the robot who lived there were forced out, and the town was taken over by Hyperion. The town was left completely abandoned, but there was never much in the town. The biggest attraction was the bounty board in which jobs could be acquired from. There were graves scattered all over the entrance to the town which were filled with townsfolk who had fallen to the bandits. Or to Handsome Jack.

Lilith had not seen anything in the town yet other than a traditional yellow ammo crate that was laying on a rock at the far end of the desolate town. Hope was instantly risen for Lilith and even though the ones who could possibly bring death to one of the three Sirens in the universe were edging so close. Lilith did not give up. She limped her way to the box, looking back every second to observe the enemies progress. She made her way past the old bounty board, slamming her hand around the post as she did for support. And continued. Past the old doctors workplace. Past every single grave. The lone survivor yanked open the crate and took hold of her pistol. She found enough ammo to eradicate the final screaming threats, which had harassed her for the past hour or so. As she reloaded her weapon she was backed up into a rock, there was nowhere to go. This was it. Kill or be killed. The midgets had continued blasting their Tediore weaponry ever since setting foot in the town, only stopping so reload every so often. She finished reloading and aimed directly at the oncoming pests before speaking her favourite word once again...

"Sup." As this word spilled from her mouth, cold as ice. Lilith began to riddle the Shotgun Midgets with everything she had. Shattering them one by one. As holes began to burn through the Psycho's chests, Lilith had to reload again quickly. A shot was fired by a Midget that would have blown Lilith's face apart if she hadn't rolled out of the way. Within two seconds of this roll being performed, the reload was complete. The remaining Psycho's were obliterated by the Sirens spot on accuracy. Not missing a single shot, it was over.

As the screams of the dying bandits faded. Lilith sunk to the ground with her back to the rocks for support and stared into the centre of the town. She loosely let her gun drop to the ground, sitting beside her, loyally but lazily like an old dog. She completely relaxed her head and let it tilt back against the rock. Her face and neck being greatly exposed to the sun which was still after all this time beaming down upon her. After gaining enough energy to bring her head back forward to get a good view of this mysterious town she had wondered into, Lilith stood up and felt a bullet of nostalgia rush through her like a plague. She understood where she was. The graves. The bounty board. The old doctors house that was 50 yards away. She even heard the robots voice echoing around her. Claptrap's voice...

" I'm in Fyrestone, oh my god!" She limped over to Doctor Zed's old workplace, still in need of Eridium and starred at the bordered up windows. " Well this is Hyperion for you." explained Lilith to herself. Gazing upwards and looking out of the town, the windmills that stood years ago still stood on that day all the same, other than some wearing away of the wood. The Siren turned to face the Bounty Board...

"Ahh the old bounty board, I acquired some good jobs from here in the past. Killing Nine Toes, Get a little blood on the tyres. Man I killed a lot of people because of the rewards offered by this board, and I'd do it all over again. As Lilith finished this sentence, the red interaction square which was on the centre of the bounty board began to turn fuzzy and go slightly shaky. For a second it went blank. As if it had gone into a state of shutdown. Seconds after this, the interaction square became operable again, this time in the colour yellow. Jobs were available to complete. Lilith pressed her finger to the touch screen device, and the words ' Job available - Uncle Teddy ' appeared on screen. As Lilith smiled, she tapped the accept job mission for the first time in what seemed years, and said with strength...

"You've always been good to me Fyrestone... It's good to be back!"


End file.
